A majority of candidates running for Moreno Valley City Council are vying for the District 5 seat.

Councilman Bill Batey, who has held the seat for four terms, is running for state Assembly.

Most candidates are new to politics. They said they were prompted to run for office because they believe residents, especially those in District 5, who are among the city’s poorest, deserve better representation. Other concerns include warehouse development, city spending and public safety.

Cooks, 57, is a retired information services provider at UCI Medical Center. He has lived in Moreno Valley since 1985.

Cooks said one of the city’s key issues is the way his district appears to have been left out of the city’s development plan.

“The main thing is the way District 5 has been purposely blighted,” Cooks said. “I don’t understand it. The City Council has not been paying attention to it.”

He also believes that the city needs more jobs, but it should focus on more than warehouse development. Cooks said college-educated residents like him have had to seek employment elsewhere because the city doesn’t have jobs to make use of their skills.

“Warehousing does not need to be the face of Moreno Valley,” said Cooks, who for several years commuted 62 miles one way to get to work.

Lewis, 59, retired from the Marine Corps. He has lived in Moreno Valley since 1990.

Lewis said he thinks the city’s key issues include job growth, education and public safety.

“The whole city is kind of stagnant,” he said. “I’m not really happy with the way the city is going.”

Lewis said job creation should include more than warehouses. He said he also believes creating a youth center and focusing on poor-performing schools could help children and affect the crime rate.

“It is my belief that crime and education go hand in hand, inversely proportionate to each other,” Lewis said. “Our education system needs to focus on each student and their talents and interests.”

Jempson, 56, is a human resources manager. She has lived in Moreno Valley 28 years and unsuccessfully ran for Moreno Valley Unified School District board in 2008.

Jempson said her service on city advisory committees has given her the experience needed to be a council member. She said she believes more focus should be placed on small business, not large warehouses, to help Moreno Valley’s economic recovery and job creation.

“My concern is that we’re going to be a city of warehouses,” Jempson said. “Small businesses are going to bring back the economy, not these conglomerations of warehouses.”

She said she believes District 5, especially the Edgemont area, has been forgotten and that the City Council could do more to help residents served by the Box Springs Mutual Water Co.

Baca, 53, is an educational consultant. She has lived in Moreno Valley since 1990 and served on the Moreno Valley school board from 2006 to 2010.

Baca said job creation is among the city’s biggest issues because its educated residents have to leave to find suitable employment. The city’s west side has been neglected, said Baca, calling it “a step child of the city.”

“I think there are some projects in the making as far as the east side area,” she said.

Baca has worked with Iddo Benzeevi, developer of the controversial Skechers warehouse and a proposed 41.6 million square-foot distribution center, to be known as the World Logistics Center. She said her candidacy is focused on her district and city residents, not Benzeevi.

“Iddo is trying to do something in the city,” she said. “Who else is doing anything in the city? This is not personal. We need jobs.”

In 2010, Baca was sentenced to a year of probation after she was convicted of obstructing a sobriety checkpoint. She said she was doing what needed to be done to help residents, many of them Hispanic, who feared arrest if they were caught without drivers licenses. They couldn’t go to work to support their families, Baca said.

She said she was talking with two officers near the checkpoint when a third arrested her.

“I have a lot of respect for the police,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done differently.”

Palmer, 46, is a disabled general contractor. He twice has lived in Moreno Valley, most recently since 2005.

Palmer said he’s running because he thinks spending is out of control and employees’ wages and benefits are overwhelming the system.

“Something has got to be changed,” he said. “I’d like to see a cap on city employees.”

Palmer also said he supports term limits for City Council and would like the mayor to be elected by voters, instead of appointed by the council. Other concerns include the need for a new library and road improvements.

“We’ve had some people who have been in there a very long time,” he said.

Lauro, 52, is an air quality surveyor and an in-home caretaker. He has lived in Moreno Valley 11 years.

He said he is running because he thinks the city needs leadership and for residents to think more independently. He also believes that the city needs to become “anti-criminal.”

“It needs to make sure criminals are dealt with, meaning that they are not allowed to come back to the city,” Lauro said.

Sherri Batey and Capolino couldn’t be reached for comment.

Batey is the wife of Bill Batey. Capolino is founder of The Part-Time CFO Inc., a business management consulting firm. He was campaign manager for Perris City Councilman Al Landers, who the state Fair Political Practices Commission accused of violating the California Political Reform Act. Capolino also was Perris City Councilman Mark Yarbrough’s accountant when Yarbrough in 2004 admitted an error on his campaign finance disclosure statement.

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